Teacher sexual abuse case: Judge allows government to recall witnesses after prosecution says defense 'misled' Suffolk jury

The prosecution’s closing argument in the case of a former Bay Shore teacher charged with the sexual abuse of two boys was postponed Tuesday after the government said the defense lawyer "perpetrated a fraud" on the jury in his summation earlier in the day.

Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo told acting State Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis before the jury returned from a lunchtime recess that Steven Politi, lawyer for accused former teacher Thomas Bernagozzi, misled the jury when he "suggested there were not any other victims."

In fact, Castaldo said, "many other victims exist, they just were not permitted to testify" under an earlier ruling by Wilutis. That ruling, under what is known as  Molineux case law, typically bars introduction of so-called bad acts that did not lead to criminal charges to prove a defendant’s propensity to engage in wrongful behavior.

Prosecutors have said allegations made by more than three dozen additional students could not be charged due to statutes of limitation.

Politi said in court that Castaldo’s assertion was false and later, in an interview outside the Suffolk County courtroom in Riverhead, that he had "suggested to the jury, ‘If you don’t see someone in this courtroom, the government made a decision that they couldn’t prove an element of the crime or anything that would be valuable in their summation."

Wilutis sided with the prosecution. She told the courtroom that Politi had "used the court’s ruling as a sword instead of a shield" and, in an unusual development, permitted prosecutors to reopen their case Wednesday. Suffolk Police Det. Patrick Boyles and a brother of one of the alleged abuse victims are expected to testify. Newsday is not naming the alleged victims of sex crimes.

Bernagozzi, 77, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sodomy and sexual conduct against a child in connection with the alleged abuse of two former students, both of whom attended Bay Shore elementary schools but were assigned to other teachers in third grade, the level he primarily taught between 1970 and 2000. One of the students has testified that he was 4-years-old when the abuse began in the 1980s. The other said he was 7 when he met Bernagozzi nearly a decade later.

Weeks of testimony have covered alleged abuse at a fitness club, beaches and other locations and a trove of photo negatives the teacher took of his students, some of which showed them shirtless.

Bernagozzi entered Wilutis' courtroom at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead wearing a blue blazer and cream-colored sweater, his hands cuffed behind his back. He addressed the court only to say that he declined to testify, speaking so softly that Wilutis asked him several times to increase his volume.

Only briefly, in his pugnacious summation, did Politi refer to his client. He attacked the expertise of Boyles, whom he derided as a "mall security" and a "bike" cop, and suggested that it was suspicious that the brother had not reported the alleged abuse at the time it occurred, later telling a civil lawyer who was suing the school district where Bernagozzi had worked. He described the government witnesses as "crackheads, drug addicts, alcoholics and liars." 

The prosecution’s case, Politi told jurors, grew out of a "fabrication designed to get money from the school district." He continued, speaking over objections from the prosecution, referring to a New York State law that permitted people to file sex-abuse lawsuits after the statute of limitations had expired: "Money. We’re here because, as the judge told you that they opened up the opportunity to sue the school district, and that’s what they did ... Then, years later, the lawyers brought this case."

Politi also attempted to undercut prosecutors’ arguments about Bernagozzi’s thousands of photographic negatives, which he said were not lewd but merely showed schoolchildren having fun. "News flash: boys take their shirts off, especially when it’s hot, especially when they’re at the pool, especially when they’re at the beach."

Even the locations where prosecutors alleged abuse had occurred were dubious, he said. "Every single allegation made against my client took place in public," he said. In one instance, he said, "they claim abuse took place on a stage ... Absurd!"

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.